<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Road verges are refuges for small mammal populations in extensively managed Mediterranean landscapes</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Biological Conservation</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2013</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Elsevier Ltd</style></publisher><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">158</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">223-229</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Understanding how roads affect the persistence of animal populations is one of the challenges of road ecology. Small mammals are of great interest on account of their value as indicators of environmental impacts and their key role in ecosystems. Nevertheless, there is a large gap in our knowledge of small mammal communities in the proximity of roads. An intensive study was conducted of the effect of a motorway on the small mammal communities in an extensively managed Mediterranean landscape. Live-trapping methods were used over a 2-year period to characterise the structure and dynamics of small mammal populations at increasing distances from the motorway (0–500–1000 m). In total, 1004 individuals of three species were captured. All three were signiﬁcantly more abundant nearest to the motorway. In addition, in the case of the wood mouse, a higher proportion of juveniles was found at 0 m and 500 m from the motorway and its abundance was independent of other, habitat-related, characteristics. The greater abundance of small mammals in close vicinity to the motorway became more obvious during the second year, when a population crash reduced captures by over 60%. Thus, the ratio of captures alongside the motorway relative to those at the other distances analysed rose from approximately 3:2 to 9:2. The results point to roadside verges being an important refuge for small mammals in terms both of greater abundance and population stability. This ﬁnding has important implications from the viewpoint of conservation biology and for management of the environmental impacts of roads.</style></abstract></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The dispersal of a dry-fruited shrub by red deer in a Mediterranean ecosystem</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Ecography</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1998</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Blackwell Publishing Ltd</style></publisher><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">21</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">204-211</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Seed dispersal of dry-fruited shrubs has received little attention in Mediterranean areas despite their frequency in the vegetation and the consideration given to the dispersal of fleshy-fruited shrubs in the area. Red deer faeces has recently been found to contain large numbers of seeds from one of the most common shrubs of this group, gum cistus Cistus ladanifer, although its importance in the reproduction of the species is unknown. This study examines the role of the red deer as an effective disperser of C. ladanifer. For this purpose, we quantify i) the C. ladanifer seed content in red deer dung over a year, ii) the seed shadow generated by the red deer wish their faeces during the same period, and iii) the ability of the dung-borne seeds to germinate and establish as seedlings under field conditions within five years following excretion. The results reveal an extremely high seed Content of the species in red deer dung (up to 80.5 ± 41.9 germinable seeds g-1), which is virtually confined to the summer (July–August), when we estimate that a red deer defecates up to 24 000 seeds of the species per day. Furthermore, red deer mainly deposit gum cistus seeds amongst plant formations lacking the species: over the year, red deer excrete &lt;2600 seeds m-2 in C. ladanifer-dominated scrub and 7400–8800 seeds m-2 in other plant formations. Under natural conditions, the dung-borne seeds have a more sniggered among-years germination pattern than free seeds in the soil. Though no seedling survived its first summer drought, the survival of seedlings sprouted from dung was significantly longer than that of control seedlings in the first and third years after deposition, and indistinguishable from it the second, fourth and fifth years. This is the first quantification of the importance of red deer to C. ladanifer dispersal and establishment, and suggests that endozoochory by mammalian herbivores can be very valuable for dry-fruited shrubs in the Mediterranean region.</style></abstract></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Herbivorous mammals as seed dispersers in a Mediterranean dehesa</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Oecologia</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1995</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">104</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">246-255</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Endozoochorous seed dispersal by herbivo- rous mammals has been verified repeatedly and its possi- ble influence on the structure and function of herbaceous communities has been suggested. Quantitative studies, however, are lacking in the field of seed dispersal via the dung of herbivore guilds in little-altered environments. The present paper analyses seed dispersal via rabbit, fal- low deer, red deer and cow dung in a Mediterranean de- hesa (open woodland used for hunting and ranching) during the seeding season. Dung seed content was deter- mined by the glasshouse cultivation of eight dung sam- ples from each herbivore, collected fortnightly between February and August. The four herbivores disperse many seeds (spring averages are 6-15 seeds per gram of dry dung and maxima of 25-70) from a large number of spe- cies (totals between 52 and 78). Dispersal seems to be mainly determined by seed production of the plant com- munity. This is reflected in (i) the dissemination of a high percentage of the species present in the dehesa, (ii) great seasonal variability, related to seed production, in the amount of seeds and number of species dispersed, and (iii) a high semi-quantitative similarity of seed con- tent in the four types of herbivore dung throughout the year. There is also important quantitative variation that depends on animal traits and feeding habits. These re- sults and the characteristics of species found in dung suggest the adaptation of plant species to the dispersal of their seeds via herbivore gut. This process may well have profound implications for vegetation dynamics and the evolution of plant traits.</style></abstract></record></records></xml>